Tag Archives: The Kids 2012

Moo!!

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Our annual trip to the dairy farm and corn maze almost didn’t happen.  With moving and getting ready to go out of town and the like, we’ve been really busy.  We decided to make time.  It’s that important for us!  And it was a great stress reliever.  The day was a bit rainy but not enough that we couldn’t go!

 Don’t worry.  That gray is gone now.  I look much younger (at least I keep saying that in my brain).

 My kids are aspiring dairy farmers.

 No, I don’t know who Liam is riding with.  But he was kind enough to share the cart with her.  Such a gentleman!

 Buddies.  My heart melts.
 Josiah made sure Ceili Rain was safe too.  He loves protecting his little sister (when he’s not beating her up because she took his toy).
I’m not sure what the lip biting is about.  She got the cart all to her self!  Lucky girl.

 There is an amazing young lady who was doing face painting at Chick-fil-a one night.  Everyone got their faces painted except Zoe.  So, Zoe didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have it done when we saw her at the dairy farm.  She is really talented on face and with other media!  And my daughter is beautiful.

 The boys were all about spiders this day.

 And Ceili Rain wanted a flower!
 Bryant’s first time on the jumping pillow without crying.  We were thrilled.

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It’s All Greek to Me

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Every year, our city has a Greek festival.  Since the kids are learning Koine Greek, I thought they would enjoy seeing a bit of the Greek culture (in America, but it’s still Greek nonetheless).  I was right, they did enjoy it. The folk dancing was good but the baklava was better!  They didn’t enjoy the soulouvakia or the gyro (Mark and I did though).  

We got a variety box of pastries.  Otherwise, we would have been trying to pick something out all night.  Baklava was the favorite.  I wish I could tell you the names of all the pastries but I really can’t pronounce any of them (right now).

Now, that day, we were planning on leaving a bit early to go to the festival because they were offering tours of the Greek Orthodox church and since we had studied a bit about the Greek Orthodox church, I thought they would enjoy seeing one in person.  We got ready to leave and I noticed that Ginger (our dog) was not outside.  I called her.  The kids called her and we could not find her anywhere.  We concluded that she slipped out as I was loading up the van.  Thus commenced a two hour search for the dog.  I even posted on our neighborhood facebook pages that we were missing our dog and for people to be looking for her.  I had given up all hope as the kids and I trudged along walking trails and up the road (we were only walking for about 30 minutes.  We drove most of the time).  Mark made it home while we were walking and did another search of the house.  He found her.  Hiding in a corner of the girls’ closet, snoozing.  Zoe and I both looked in there and never saw her. 

Depsite our afternoon adventure, we had a wonderful time at the festival.

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The Grandparents are Here!

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Ge & Granddaddy are furniture ninjas.  If I mention something that I’m looking for, nine times out of ten, they can find it.  And always with a great price tag too!  I can’t wait till I get to organizing my entry way and showing off a beauty they found and brought up.

Okay, back to my story.  I mentioned to Ge that I would like for the girls to have a vanity in their room so they didn’t have to worry about the boys playing with their hair things and (yes, eventually) make up.  So, off they set to looking.

I looked to but I didn’t score like they did.  The vanity is beautiful and will be even more so when Zoe and I finish with it.  You’ll have to stay tuned for that.

In the mean time, Ge and Granddaddy had to bring it to our house.  Which meant an afternoon of giggles, snuggles, and silliness ensued.  The kids love to see their grandparents.

Granddaddy taught the kids how to throw a screwdriver and there by aerating our non-growing sod (shortly after Mark actually had to cut it…it took over a month but it finally group a quarter of an inch).

Malachi made sure to give off his lovely cuddles and smiles.  This was in September before the dreaded “separation anxiety” started.

Bryant with his Granddaddy.  He has been a grandfather boy from the time he was born (Papa and Granddaddy both…I think his head would explode if they were both in the same room at the same time). Yes, Ace is trying to photo bomb.

Ceili Rain refused to be outdone with the granddaddy cuddles.

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Tradition!

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September brought in our 3rd Annual Labor Day Weekend Drive In.  We were slightly worried we wouldn’t be able to make it this year but we squeezed it in on a Sunday night.  Madagascar 3 or 2 or whatever was our scheduled showing.  And, we had a blast, of course.  Yes, we have our “adopted” daughter Laura with us in the pictures!  She braved the late night showing because she loves us…well, she loves Zoe.

Malachi’s first drive in.  No, he won’t remember it either!  He was a great trooper though.

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Malachi is Six Months!

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I can not believe this little man is now six months old!  He continues to be the fun one.  He laughs at everything.  The dog walks by.  He laughs.  He yanks my hair and I tell him no.  He laughs.  Any number of siblings walk through a room.  He laughs.  If you look at him.  He laughs.  But when he is teething or has a present in his diaper.  Well.  He can get cranky.  He started wanting to go to sleep on his own.  I mean fussing and fighting if we try to rock him some times.  This started the week we closed on our house.  And yes, I miss the rocking cuddles.  I always do.  Sometimes, every now and then, he’ll cuddle up and let me rock him to sleep but that is getting few and far between since he can do this:

And, he’s now mobile.  He started a belly crawl/slither at the end of his fifth month and continues to improve (meaning go faster).  He’s also getting up on all fours but he can’t figure out how to actually make him self go forward in that position so he’ll plop back on the floor and take off again.

I’ll post videos tomorrow of his amazing feats.  For now.  The stats:

17 lbs 12 oz (50%)
28 inches long (92%)

Josiah’s stats at this age still make him the winner for chunkiest.  Malachi is continuing with our trend of babies slimming down around six months.

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Back to School

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We took a long break this year due to the moving thing.  But, we were able to get settled in and actually have a start date in August!

So, here’s our curriculum for this year.

Everyone

Bible-Foundations 1.  I wish I had had time last week to write about this because Currclick was offering this free (they still are as of tonight)!  All three years!  I’m not sure if they still are but if so, get on over there and grab it.  Basically, Foundations provides a bare bones foundation to studying the Bible.  It outlines weekly lessons that start in Genesis and, by the time you finish Foundations 3, will end in Revelation.  Basically, studying the Bible in three years.  I really like this because it is just a jumping off point of studying and we can take it as far as we want.  There are suggestions for coloring sheets for the younger non-readers, however, these do not correspond with the Scripture reading, so I spend an extra 20 minutes grabbing coloring sheets off of various sites.  Not a big deal.  This study is also great because everyone is working on the same scripture at the same time.  They are also learning the Books of the Bible and doing Bible (Sword) drills.  Here are the Currclick links for Foundations 2 and Foundations 3.

Mystery of History Volume III-We’re studying Renaissance and Reformation.  I love both of these subjects with all my heart.  There is so much to learn and seeing it from a Biblical worldview is even better.

Apologia Science Exploring Creation with Astronomy-This is where having and knowing people using the same curriculum helps.  Kristina used it last year and since she had it we are doing it this year.  We used the Journals last year and I really liked that reinforcement of what we are reading, so we’re doing them this year.

Hey Andrew!  Teach Me Some Greek-That’s right.  Greek.  We’ve focused so much on reading, writing, and arithmetic that I decided now was the time to throw in some foreign language.  Why Greek?  Well, because it’s the language of the New Testament.  What better way to study God’s word than by using the actual language it was written in.  Hey Andrew!  is very child friendly and Christ centered.  Love it!  Right now we’re learning how to write each of the letters of the Greek alphabet, what their names are and what they say.

Grammar
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Zoe is in Volume 4, Ace is in Volume 3 and Liam started out in Volume 1.  This is where my classical education views combine with Charlotte Mason.  While this is more classical it is also a very easy approach to grammar and writing and speaking and all that.  So far, I love the material and how it’s covered and the kids love that it takes less than 20 minutes a day (around twenty minutes for the older ones if needed).

Math

Life of Fred-We’re still in the elementary series. We figured out this year that it goes in alphabetical order and increases in difficulty (but it still doesn’t mean you have to go in order if you don’t want to).  Life of Fred is great at taking practical math and teaching it to children.  It helps the kids think critically.  Case in point, Zoe had a critical thinking problem on one of her chapters and I answered it and she just stared at me and then had to explain how my answer was wrong.  My brain was not “thinking” when I answered, but it eventually caught up.

Khan Academy-This *free* program is pretty wonderful.  This drives home the drill and directions they need for every day math.  And did I mention it’s free?  The kids are enjoying it because they earn badges for watching videos and getting problems correct.  I love it because it’s really helping them grasp basic math concepts (for free).  If you are a home school parent, you can register a certain way to be the coach and the parent.  That’s great for checking the kids scores etc.  Also, if they are under 13 you can’t sign them up for a email account, so you can keep everyone under the same email but with different user names.  Make sense?  If not, go here to figure it all out.  By the way, Khan does not just have math, they have Science (it’s not creationist though.  Be warned), art history, computer programming as well as other subjects.

Writing

We’re sticking with Institutes for Excellence in Writing.  We’ve had such amazing success with this program so far.  Zoe is doing Fables, Myths and Fairytales and thus far has been a big review of everything she learned last year.  Ace is finishing up Student Writing Intensive Level A.  I’m using the concepts taught in Primary Arts of Language (PAL) to reinforce Liam’s writing skills which are still mostly verbal.

Reading
Veritas Press Comprehension Guides-I picked out several books for Zoe and Ace to read this year and have purchased Comprehension Guides from Veritas Press to go with them.  When they finish two chapters, we sit down and discuss the chapters and if a project is included either they work on it independently or we work on it together.  Liam is doing the same things only with shorter books.  Liam is going through the book First Favorites Volume 1 which is basically like the other comprehension guides only with shorter books. 

Here’s their reading lists:
Zoe:  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Hobbit,  From the Mixed Up File sof Mrs. Basil E. Frankwerler, Robin Hood, The Dangerous Journey, Mary Poppins, The Twenty One Balloons, and The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 (that last one doesn’t have a comprehension guide but I felt it was important enough that she needed to read it)
 Ace:  Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, Misty of Chiconteague, Homer Price, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, Black Shops Before Troy and Stuart Little
Liam:  Caps for Sale,  Blueberries for Sal, Floss, A Chair for Mother, Harry the Dirty Dog, Billy Blaze, Bread and Jam for Francis, Dr. DeSoto, Curious George, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Frog and Toad are Friends, Frog and Toad All Year Long.


Phonics
Josiah is our only phonics guy and we had such great success with PAL that we’re using that again.  He’s learning reading as well as writing.
 **Update**After struggling through PAL Reading for several lessons, I decided to go back to Abeka Phonics until Josiah gets a good grasp on his letter sounds and blends.  He’s been struggling to get through the lessons in phonics but has been super awesome with his hand writing.  So, we’re returning to Abeka.  Once I see he’s picking up on it, we’ll go back to PAL.

This is in addition to home school gymnastics, park days, golf clinics (Ace and Josiah) and sewing lessons (not counting church).  So, we can check off exercise and socialization!

I’m so excited about this year and the kids have already learned so much in the short amount of time they’ve been “schooling.”

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First Day of School

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I’m working on our curriculum post for the year, but since it’s not done yet, here are our first day of school pictures.

And, you can get a glimpse of our dining room/school room.  Don’t worry.  I think I’ve joined a Home Organization in 14 Weeks thing so I’ll be posting pictures of our home throughout those 14 weeks.  Well, more like 12 because I missed the first two and will do those last.  Okay, so I guess it is 14.

Aren’t they cute?!

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August In Instagram

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Since I spent most of August searching for…well, for everything (our life packed in boxes), my phone served as my camera.  And here’s what I got…

 No, it’s not a zombie hand.  But paint.  As in, I was up to my eyeballs in paint for a full week.  We took the week after we closed to move in small boxes (the kitchen mainly), and paint rooms something other than flat paint.  Not many people could understand this but those with small children and those who have visited and seen my stairway (which is still flat paint because I can’t decide on a color and there is no way I’m paying a painter to come paint until I know for sure that I want the wall that color for at least ten years, okay, five.  Why would I pay someone to paint?  Well, because it’s a two story stairway.  I digress) will understand the need for at least a semi-gloss.

So, the kids had boxes of toys, I had my paint and Malachi had his playpen.  We were happy.  I (along with Mark and a few other friends) painted the kids’ bathroom, the boys’ room, the girls’ room, the schoolroom/dining room and the kitchen.  Needless to say, I was covered in paint all week.  But it got done.

Our house has a fence.  Yeah, you probably figured that with the amount of kids and animals we have.  Well, behind the fence is greenspace.  And the kids love it!  That was one of the main reasons we choose the house.  We wanted them to be able to explore and pick up ticks and other various bugs and do kid things.

 Lunch after the first day of school.  We all survived.
 Josiah being Josiah!  I just have to share.  We’re battling a fly invasion (despite all my efforts to keep food put up and the house tidy…they keep coming in.  As a result of the the invasion, Mark and the boys are enjoying chasing and killing the flies (trust me, all flies were harmed in the typing of this story).  Some times they just don’t get swept up. This past weekend, Josiah stepped on one of the twenty plus flies Mark killed in less than an hour (I kid you not).  The kids were saying how gross it was but he just very cooly walked up to us.  Mark asked if he had a dead fly on his foot.  
“Yes sir,”  he replied.  “But I got it off.  It’s gone.”  And he kept on going.  Wish he was that laid back about working on schoolwork!
Malachi mush.  Yum.  Yum.  This was avocado and squash and zucchini with a bit of applesauce.
We’ve been blessed with quite a bit of rain this summer.  Not enough to pull us completely out of a drought but just enough to keep the searing heat at bay.  One afternoon it was sprinkling just enough after a thunderstorm that the kids wanted to play.  In the gutter.  And they did for a full hour or so.
And finally.  Bryant.  In his underwear.  One day I will work on potty training him.  One day.  Until then, he has decided that some nights he needs to wear his underwear to bed.  Over his diaper.  Over his pjs.  Mark and I realized it didn’t matter much.  I mean who’s going to see it?  It’s not like we’d post it on a blog.  Or Facebook.  Or broadcast it over the World Wide Web.  One day, I’ll look back on this picture and remember why he is in therapy.
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